EU extends private storage for pigmeat

Private storage schemes for pigmeat will be extended
for a further three months for meat that is already in the scheme, the EU
announced yesterday.

The decision was taken at the EU's pigmeat management committee in Brussels
with the aim of helping pig farmers through a difficult period fuelled by rising
feed costs.

EU farm commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, commented that the scheme had
done little to slow down the climb in feed prices. At the EU Farm Council on
Monday, the Commissioner suggested that the EU's recent ban on Brazilian beef
could, in fact, help the EU's pig farmers if consumers were to start choosing
pork over beef.

The APS scheme closed on November 27 last year, after aid requests for around
97 000 tonnes of pigmeat came from member states including Denmark, Spain, Italy
and Germany.